A NATIONAL GUN CONTROL LAW is NEEDED TO HAVE CONSISTENCY AND TO GUIDE STATE LAWS.
MY OPINION: Our guns have changed, shouldn’t our laws?
The Second Amendment of the Constitution was written in 1791. These are the guns that were used: Brown Bess Musket,Charleville Musket, American-made Muskets, Long Rifles, Pattern 1776 Infantry Rifle and the Ferguson Rifle. The 2nd Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
TAKE ACTION! Ask US Congressmen and Senators to introduce and support NATIONAL GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION
It is an election year, ask the candidates for US Congress and the Senate if they will introduce and support NATIONAL GUN PROTECTION LEGISLATION and GET PLEDGES FROM CANDIDATES. This would make gun control consistent over the entire 50 states, so people could not drive to the next state to buy guns, or order guns online and use in their gun-controlled state.
We need NATIONAL GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION. This would make it consistent across all the states. It should include:
1-Background checks on all firearm purchases (guns and ammunition) in gun stores, gun shows, private sales and online with a 10 day waiting period.
2-All new guns must be sold with fingerprint recognition. For a gun to be used, the trigger must recognize the fingerprint of its registered owner, which would eliminate crimes with stolen guns and potentially some suicides.
3-People on the DO NOT FLY LIST cannot buy guns.
4-People who have been convicted of domestic violence or have a restraining order by a spouse/ partner could not buy guns.
5-People who are mentally ill could not buy guns.
6-Assault weapons should be banned along high capacity magazines and clips and bump stocks and any other equipment, alteration, or modification that would increase a firearm’s capacity for ammunition or rate of fire.
7-Silencers should be illegal. What if the people in Las Vegas couldn’t hear the guns over the music?
8-To purchase a firearm or ammunition you must be a US citizen, be 21 years of age and take a nationally approved education class and pass a national licensing testing of knowledge from the class and proficiency.
9- Gun owners must have liability insurance, just like people who drive cars.
10-Form a national professional licensing system for police officers and registry so that officers are viewed as professionals and those officers who have accusations of violence, racism or are suspended from their jobs are exposed and unable to apply for positions in other organizations.
Not sure who to contact in the US House of Representatives? Click here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/#state.
To contact your US Senator: Click here: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
WHY ACTION IS IMPORTANT?
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the strongest lobby in Washington DC. Since the Supreme Court Ruling on Citizen’s United Corportations can now donate to political campaigns. The NRA also donates heavily to the Republican Party and other Political Action Committees (PAC).
HOW MUCH HAS THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION DONATED TO YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE? CHECK THIS INTERACTIVE CHART. Since 1998, the National Rifle Association has donated $3,533,294 to current members of Congress. Explore below to see how much money has been donated to members of Congress in your state:As of May 2022 here are the statistics of US legislators who have taken money from the NRA: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-7PdCI2NawSgP1QE-cGYVYedetYqepR-4jBweaJyqFo/edit#gid=1782600961.
Here is a sampling of the list of NRA recipients:
WHAT/ WHO FUNDS THE NRA? Prior to the passage of the McClure-Volkmer Act signed by President Reagan 1986, interstate ammunition sales by common carrier to private individuals were banned and records were maintained of ammunition sales. McClure-Volkmer ended these limited controls on interstate — and opened up a new financial funding stream for the NRA.
Today the NRA receives millions of dollars from online sales of ammunition, high-capacity ammunition magazines, and other accessories through the Round-Up Program, created by top NRA benefactor Larry Potterfield. Potterfield is founder and head of MidwayUSA, which claims to stock “[j]ust about everything for shooting, reloading, gunsmithing and hunting,” including ammunition and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The Round-Up Program encourages buyers to “round-up” their purchase to the nearest dollar with the difference going to the NRA.’ ‘Alleged Aurora mass shooter James Holmes’ ability to reportedly purchase more than six thousand rounds of ammunition online without any record-keeping is the direct result of Congressional passage of the National Rifle Association’s flagship bill of the 1980s: the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/nra-reaps-profits-from-th_b_1698652.html
Get Active: DONATE MONEY
Everytown for Gun Safety: https://www.everytown.org/
Giffords Law Center: Gabby Giffords was a much loved House Represntative in Arizona when I lived there. She was shot in the head but survived and went on to found the Giffords Law Center with her husband AZ senator Mark Kelly https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/
MOM’s DEMAND ACTION FOR GUN SAFETY: https://momsdemandaction.org/
BRADY CAMPAIGN TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE: https://www.bradycampaign.org/
AMERICANS FOR RESPONSIBLE SOLUTIONS: https:americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/
The sad truth about gun deaths that might be controlled if people locked up their guns:
What do other countries do? AUSTRALIA’S SUCCESSFUL BUY- BACK PROGRAM
AUSTRALIA’S SUCCESSFUL GUN CONTROL–An Australian named Martin Bryant murdered 35 people with a semiautomatic rifle in Port Arthur in 1996, in the deadliest mass shooting in Australian history,
THE PROGRAM:
- banned automatic and semiautomatic firearms,
- adopted new licensing requirements,
- established a national firearms registry, and
- instituted a 28-day waiting period for gun purchases
- bought (at market value) and destroyed more than 600,000 civilian-owned firearms
HOW? in a program that cost half a billion dollars and was funded by raising taxes on healthcare. The entire overhaul took only months to implement.
THE RESULTS: THE US HAS 29.7 GUN DEATHS PER MILLION PEOPLE AUSTRALIA HAS only 1.4 GUN DEATHS PER MILLION PEOPLE. The number of mass shootings in Australia—dropped from 13 in the 18-year period before 1996 to zero after the Port Arthur massacre. Between 1995 and 2006, gun-related homicides and suicides in the country dropped by 59 percent and 65 percent, respectively, though these declines appear to have since leveled off. Two academics who have studied the impact of the reform initiative estimate that the gun-buyback program saves at least 200 lives each year, according to The New York Times. In a multinational study for the Small Arms Survey, Marcus Wilson cited the Australian case as an example of the most efficacious type of government effort to control arms and measurably reduce armed violence, in which weapons-collection programs are combined with legislative reform, campaigns to shift public opinion, and civil-society involvement.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/12/australia-tim-fischer-us-guns/418698
AUSTRALIA HOMICIDE RATE 1 DEATH FOR EVERY 100,000 PEOPLE, THE U.S. IS 10 PER EVERY 100,000: With Australia’s population steadily increasing, the nation’s homicide incident rate has fallen even more than the number of homicides — from 1.6 per 100,000 in 1995-96 to 1 per 100,000 in 2013-2014, according to a government report on crime trends. That was the lowest homicide incident rate at the time in 25 years, as we mentioned earlier.
“In the seven years before the NFA (1989-1995), the average annual firearm suicide death rate per 100,000 was 2.6 (with a yearly range of 2.2 to 2.9); in the seven years after the buyback was fully implemented (1998-2004), the average annual firearm suicide rate was 1.1 (yearly range 0.8 to 1.4).”
“In the seven years before the NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate per 100,000 was .43 (range .27 to .60) while for the seven years post NFA, the average annual firearm homicide rate was .25 (range .16 to .33).”
“[T]he drop in firearm deaths was largest among the type of firearms most affected by the buyback.”
The authors, however, noted that “no study has explained why gun deaths were falling, or why they might be expected to continue to fall.” That poses difficulty in trying to definitively determine the impact of the law, they write.
“Whether or not one wants to attribute the effects as being due to the law, everyone should be pleased with what happened in Australia after the NFA — the elimination of firearm massacres (at least up to the present) and an immediate, and continuing, reduction in firearm suicide and firearm homicide,” the authors write.http://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/gun-control-australia-updated/
HOW TO PREVENT GUN DEATHS- WHERE THE EXPERTS AND THE PUBLIC AGREE- A POLL The most popular measures in our survey — policies like universal background checks and keeping guns from convicted stalkers — were supported by more than 85 percent of registered voters. Even the least popular idea, a law that would limit gun sales to people who had to demonstrate a “genuine need” for the weapon, was favored by nearly 50 percent. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/10/upshot/How-to-Prevent-Gun-Deaths-The-Views-of-Experts-and-the-Public.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
What Works and Doesn’t Work in Reducing Gun Deaths
| Suggested Policy | Effectiveness | Public Support |
| Requiring all sellers to run background checks on anyone who buys a gun. | 7.3 | 86% |
| Preventing sales of all firearms to people who have been convicted of violent misdemeanors, including domestic assaults. | 7.1 | 83% |
| Preventing sales of all firearms to people who have been convicted of stalking another person | 6.5 | 85% |
| Requiring all gun owners to possess a license for their firearm. | 6.4 | 78% |
| Requiring all sellers to run background checks on anyone who buys ammunition. | 6.4 | 72% |
| Banning the sale and ownership of all semi-automatic and automatic firearms. | 6.1 | 63% |
| Preventing sales of all firearms to people who have been reported as dangerous to law enforcement by a mental health provider. | 6.0 | 87% |
| Requiring all owners to report lost or stolen firearms. | 6.0 | 88% |
| Banning the sale and ownership of all ammunition magazines with a capacity greater than 10 bullets. | 5.8 | 63% |
| Requiring that all firearms be recorded in a national registry. | 5.7 | 70% |
| Expanding screening and treatment for the mentally ill. | 5.6 | 86% |
| Requiring that all gun buyers demonstrate a a ”genuine need” for a gun, such as a law enforcement job or hunting. | 5.6 | 49% |
| Requiring all guns to microstamp each bullet with a mark that uniquely matches the gun and bullet. | 5.5 | 65% |
| Increasing minimum penalties for people found possessing firearms illegally. | 5.4 | 80% |
| Requiring gun dealers to keep, retain and report all gun records and sales to the Federal government. | 5.4 | 80% |
| Banning the sale and ownership of assault rifles or similar firearms. | 5.0 | 67% |
| Requiring all gun owners to register their fingerprints. | 5.0 | 72% |
| Preventing sales of all firearms and ammunition to anyone considered to be a “known or suspected terrorist” by the F.B.I. | 4.9 | 89% |
| Requiring a mandatory waiting period of three days after gun is purchased before it can be taken home. | 4.8 | 77% |
| Limiting the number of guns that can be purchased to one per month. | 4.8 | 67% |
| Limiting the amount of ammunition you can purchase within a given time period. | 4.4 | 64% |
| Requiring that all gun owners store their guns in a safe storage unit. | 4.4 | 76% |
| Banning firearms from all workplace settings nationally. | 4.3 | 60% |
| Requiring that gun buyers complete safety training and a test for their specific firearm. | 4.1 | 79% |
| Implementing a national “buy-back” program for all banned firearms and magazines, where the government pays people to turn in illegal guns. | 3.9 | 74% |
| Banning firearms from schools and college campuses nationally. | 3.8 | 68% |
| Requiring that all gun owners store their guns with childproof locks. | 3.5 | 82% |
| Requiring every state to honor out-of-state permits to carry a concealed weapon. | 1.7 | 73% |
| Authorizing stand-your-ground laws nationally that allow people to defend themselves using lethal force without needing to retreat first. | 1.7 | 71% |
How We Made Our Matrix
To build a list of possible policies, we consulted the academic literature on laws from American states and foreign countries and spoke with advocates for gun rights and gun control. Both surveys were conducted in June of last year.
For our measure of popularity, Morning Consult conducted an internet survey of 1,975 voters, who were asked whether they approved of the possible laws.
For our effectiveness survey, we asked experts in gun policy to evaluate each idea on a scale of 1 to 10, according to how effective they thought it would be in reducing fatalities. We asked the experts to ignore considerations of political or legal feasibility.
Our expert panel consisted of 32 current or retired academics in criminology, public health and law, who have published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals on gun policy. We know our sample is small and may not include every expert that readers would like consulted. But we feel it represents a useful, if imperfect, measure of what people steeped in the research think might save lives.
The panel of academics included: Cathy Barber, Magdalena Cerdá, Jay Corzine, John Donohue, Laura Dugan, Liza H. Gold, David Hemenway, David Kennedy, Louis Klarevas, Gary Kleck, David Kopel, Tomislav Kovandzic, Adam Lankford, John Lott, Jonathan Metzl, Matthew Miller, Carlisle E. Moody, Andrew Papachristos, Charles Ransford, Peter Reuter, Mark Rosenberg, Robert J. Sampson, Michael Siegel, Gary Slutkin, Robert Spitzer, Stephen P. Teret, George E. Tita, Eugene Volokh, Daniel Webster, April Zeoli and others.
Special thanks to the Fraternal Order of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association for distributing the survey to their membership.
INFORMATION and STATISTICS
GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA EXPLAINED IN 17 MAPS AND CHARTS
America is an exceptional country when it comes to guns. It’s one of the few countries in which the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected. But America’s relationship with guns is unique in another crucial way: Among developed nations, the US is far and away the most violent — in large part due to the easy access many Americans have to firearms. These charts and maps show what that violence looks like compared with the rest of the world, why it happens, and why it’s such a tough problem to fix.
1) America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 16 times as many as Germany
2) America has 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world
3) There have been more than 1,500 mass shootings since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (December 2012)
4) On average, there is more than one mass shooting for each day in America
5) States with more guns have more gun deaths
6) It’s not just the US: Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths
7) States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths
8) Still, gun homicides (like all homicides) have declined over the past couple decades
9) Most gun deaths are suicides
10) The states with the most guns report the most suicides
11) Guns allow people to kill themselves much more easily
12) Programs that limit access to guns have decreased suicides
13) Since the shooting of Michael Brown, police have killed at least 2,902 people (May 2017)
14) In states with more guns, more police officers are also killed on duty
15) Support for gun ownership has sharply increased since the early ’90s
16) High-profile shootings don’t appear to lead to more support for gun control
17) But specific gun control policies are fairly popular
TO VIEWALL CHARTS AND MAPS go to: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts
IS THIS YOUR AMERICA? COMPARE US GUN DEATHS TO OTHER COUNTRIES
US- 10 deaths per 100,000 people.
Finland- 3.6 deaths per 100,000 people
Austria- 3.2 deaths per 100,000 people from the American Journal of the Medicine chart
“Murder is the second leading cause of death among Americans aged 15 to 24, the study found. The research also showed that murder was the third leading cause of death among those aged 25-34. Compared to those in the same age groups in other wealthy countries, Americans aged 15-24 are 49 times more likely to be the victim of a gun-related murder. For those aged 25-34, that number is 32 times more likely, the research revealed.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-u-s-gun-deaths-compare-to-other-countries/
WHY DO WE NEED GUN CONTROL LAWS? Because you can buy this SUBMACHINE GUN ON THE INTERNET. http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/mac-m-10-9-mm-sub-machine-gun-r20904/
THE EXISTING LAWS
My opinion: Our guns have changed, shouldn’t our laws? These guns were available in 1776:Brown Bess Musket,Charleville Musket, American-made Muskets, Long Rifles, Pattern 1776 Infantry Rifle and the Ferguson Rifle.
The Second Amendment of the Constitution: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) was adopted, having been ratified by three-fourths of the states.”
2.2017: Trump ROLLS BACK an Obama-era REGULATION THAT MADE IT HARDER FOR PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESSES TO BUY GUNS.
The rule, which was finalized in December 2016, added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and people deemed unfit to handle their own financial affairs to the national background check database, which would have added about 75,000 names to that database. President Barack Obama recommended the now-nullified regulation in a 2013 memo following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 first graders and six others dead. The measure sought to block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns. The original rule was hotly contested by gun rights advocates who said it infringed on Americans’ Second Amendment rights. Gun control advocates, however, praised the rule for curbing the availability of firearms to those who may not use them with the right intentions.
HOW STRONG ARE THE GUN LAWS IN YOUR STATE? Look at the interactive map. They analyzed the following criteria: We looked at five types of gun control enacted at the state level: assault weapons bans, high-capacity magazine bans, gun possession prohibitions for high-risk individuals, gun possession prohibitions for individuals with domestic violence convictions and mandatory background checks.https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/assault-weapons-laws/?utm_term=.d67c161b22a6
Why restrict guns? Listen to Obama’s answer at a townhall meeting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6imFvSua3Kg
60% OF GUN DEATHS ARE SUICIDES, which SUPPORTS GUN CONTROL– Not all of those suicides are by gun, but a majority are. And while some people feeling suicidal impulses will choose another method if a gun is not at hand, public health researchers cite two reasons guns are particularly dangerous: 1) Guns are more lethal than most other methods people try, so someone who attempts suicide another way is more likely to survive; 2) Studies suggest that suicide attempts often occur shortly after people decide to kill themselves, so people with deadly means at hand when the impulse strikes are more likely to use them than those who have to wait or plan.THAT MEANS THAT STRATEGIES THAT MAKE SUICIDE MORE INCONVENIENT OR DIFFICULT CAN SAVE LIVES. Guns, when they are in the home, can make self-harm both easy and deadly. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html
Debbie Hecht: Thoughts & Theories 
For years we have been ignored, had the 2nd Amendment thrown at us…and all the time Citizens United has given the opportunity for the NRA to control and purchase our government…maybe we have to start there…undo their legal rights. I’m frustrated trying to fight guns. Maybe fight the law.
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Gun safety is too mild. I tried that there were few responses. We need to control the gun violence. Thanks for your input though!!
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Could you please add private sales to the list in your first provision? Without that inclusion, there is a loophole. Thank you for considering this.
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